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Mysticism and Indian Spirituality
255
tuality reached its latest peak, particularly in the elaboration of mystical doctrines. But the whole process of mystical endeavours did not stop there. Although Buddhism eventually disappreared from the Indian scene to flourish elsewhere, Hindu Yoga and broader mystical movements as well as doctrinal creativity have continued to live in India till modern times as shown by the lives and work of such personalities as Ramakrishna, Ramana, Aurobindo, Ananda Mayi Ma and others.
Notes
1 Karel Werner, “Mysticism as Doctrine and Experience”. Religious
Traditions. Bandoora, Australia (forthcoming). 2 S. N. Dasgupta, Hindu Mysticism, New York 1027 (repr. 1959), pp.
3–30. (Repr. also in Delhi 1976.) 3 Cf. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Fhilosophy I, Cambridge 1951 (1st
ed. 1922), p. 17. Cf. also Werner, "On Interpreting the Vedas”, Religion,
Journal of Religion and Religions, London, vol. 7 (1977), pp. 189-200 4 I hava dealt with the question of immortality in the Vedas as a spe
cial achievement of ancient rșis as distinct from the limited reward of the ordinary worshipper in my article “The Vedic Concept of Human Personality and its Destiny", Journal of Indian Philosopy, vol. 5
(1978). pp, 275-289. 5 Jan Gonda, The Vision of the Vedic Poets, The Hague 1963. 6 I have analysed the myth of Aditi in relation to the nāsadiya sūkta
in my paper “Symbolism in the Vedas and its Conceptualisation", Numen XXIV (1977), pp. 223-240. For the Indra-Vộtra myth and other cnsmogonies see Norman W. Brown, “The Creation Myth of the Rg Veda", Journal of the American Oriental Society 62 (1642), pp. 85-98. Also ; Mircea Eliade, Cosmos and History, New York 1959, py. 19ff and again in A History of Religious Ideas, vol. I, London 1979 (French 1976), pp. 205-208. Cf also : F. B. J. J. Kuiper, « Cosmogony and Conception : A Query", History of Religions, Chicago, vol. 10 (1970),
pp. 91-138. 7 Aurobindo Ghosh, The Secret of the Veda, Birth Centenary Library,
vol. 10, Pondicherry 1971, p. 8. 8 J. W. Hauer, Der Yoga, Ein indischer Weg zum Selbst, Stuttgart 1958,
P, 19.
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